A Woven Part
by alyseci5
Summary: There's no beauty in snow; it's cold and wet and makes the journey treacherous.  Cara/Leo


**Pairing:** Cara/Leo

**Spoilers:** Set post season 2

**Warnings:** None

**Disclaimer:** Legend of the Seeker (TV) belongs to ABC Studios and Disney. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fanfiction, written solely for the love of the show

**Author's Notes:** Written for Yuletide for Aurora/, who wanted Legend of the Seeker and _Cara/Leo is preferred, and feel free to go AU. I just want to see them be happy together, whatever the circumstances._

-o-

_And all her heart  
>Is a woven part<br>Of the flurry and drift  
>Of whirling snow<em>

- **Why**, Bliss Carman

-o-

The snow had fallen thick and fast, covering everything in sight with a deep, white blanket. Cara stood in the entrance of the cave they'd sought shelter in and scowled at the clean vista stretching out in front of her, ignoring Kahlan when she stepped up to stand beside her. Cara had long since fallen out of the habit of being wary of the Confessor's powers; it was Kahlan who finally broke the silence that hovered between them, wide but no longer uncomfortable, saying, "It's so beautiful," her voice soft with awe.

Cara rolled her eyes. There was no beauty in something that cold and wet, not when it would make the next part of their journey more treacherous than usual; it was treacherous enough travelling with the Seeker, let alone having to trudge through snowdrifts that sucked at their energy and muffled every sound. At best, the snow might make the scenery a little less ugly as they wound their way through the countryside, although even that was debateable. Cara didn't usually worry about such things, but she had to admit that it was unnerving to see the crops rotting in the fields because no one was left to harvest them, or to stumble across banelings lying rotting where they had fallen, no longer bound to the Keeper's bidding now that the rift was closed and the Keeper's magic sealed away with him.

Kahlan was still hovering expectantly; when Cara turned her head, there was a small smile playing around the corners of Kahlan's mouth. That was nothing new; half the time she couldn't figure out whether Kahlan was laughing at (or with) her, or if this was just another irritating side effect of Kahlan and Richard finally figuring out that they could be together. The pair of them seemed to spend most of the time these days with their heads bowed together, exchanging all of those little lovers' inanities Cara had never had the patience for.

Her gaze now, however, slipped away from Kahlan towards the **other**Seeker: just a moment's inattention, a weakness she was bound to regret. When she tore her gaze away and looked back at Kahlan, Kahlan's smile had deepened, taking on a quality that could only be described as smug.

"Don't you think it's beautiful, Cara?" This time Kahlan was definitely laughing at her.

"It's cold, it's wet, and it will double the time it'll take us to get anywhere," Cara snapped, her pride wounded at the thought of Kahlan seeing past her defences, even if it was just the briefest of glimpses. But her wounded pride didn't quite stop her eyes from straying again to where they had no real business venturing.

Leo smiled back at her and she tore her eyes away, staring back out over the white world in front of her.

"We should move," she said, refusing to look at either Kahlan or Leo, not when she felt as stripped bare as the trees in the valley below.

"I thought you said it was going to take twice as long to get anywhere?" Zedd's voice was mild as he loped towards her, ducking his head a little as he moved past the cave's entrance. His piercing gaze took in the vast expanse of white, and he shook his head a little, smiling a strange little smile that Cara really had no desire to understand. "Kahlan is perfectly correct, though. It really is very beautiful."

Cara supposed. As long as you simply looked at it and didn't think how it would feel when your toes were frozen in your boots and your nose burned cold and dripping in the icy air. She gave Zedd a sidelong look, not bothering to hide her irritation, not that she ever did with Zedd. He smiled back at her, ignoring her little huff of exasperation, which that puffed out, white and crisp, into the morning air. "Still," he continued, for all the world as though she hadn't just wordlessly called him a sentimental old fool, "there's something to be said for toasting your toes next to the fire on a day like this."

Richard's soft laugh echoed out as he, in turn, made his way towards the entrance. Cara huffed again, stomping her feet pointedly as she moved several steps until her back was pressed firmly up against the rock. The entrance was getting busier than a brothel on market day, with all the coming and going, and it left her teeth aching and her fingers twitching. Richard smiled at her as he stepped into the gap she'd left and she fought the urge to roll her eyes again. He was doing that far too frequently for her peace of mind - smiling. She got that he and Kahlan were still coasting along, riding the currents of their love for other, but the obvious joy they were delighting in was starting to turn her stomach. There was a limit to how much happy she could take in any one day and it was only just past sunrise.

She made a point of not looking in Leo's direction this time, but the simple fact of not looking felt as obvious, if not more so, than simply giving in to the itch underneath her skin. She didn't need to look to know that Leo was watching her; that was another itch she was ignoring, one to add to the many that left her twitching and vulnerable. Richard and Kahlan were sufficiently soppy for this weird little group; she had no desire to add herself and Leo to that mix. Not that she ever would. Whether Leo would want to was another matter, and one she didn't want to consider; there were places that not even Cara would venture.

She watched Richard instead, not missing the small frown that creased his brow. With any other man she'd be worried, alert to anything that he may have spotted that she had missed. But she knew Richard's expressions by now; this wasn't his 'danger is lurking' frown. This wasn't even his 'we must rescue small children from wells' frown, and she'd had more than enough of those over the last several months. This frown was thoughtful, considering. The kind of frown that told her that they weren't going to be moving today, as though Richard's sudden, sneaky, sidelong look at Kahlan couldn't have told her that already.

She didn't bother hiding the roll of her eyes this time and Zedd grinned at her conspiratorially, as though the old fool wasn't usually complicit in giving Richard and Kahlan as much time together as possible.

"Well," she asked impatiently and not bothering to hide that either. "Are we going or are we going to waste yet more time?"

Richard gave her a look that bordered on amused, full of affectionate tolerance underneath, and she resisted the urge to kick him. Sometimes repeating over and over in her mind that he was the Lord Rahl was the only thing that stopped her from thwacking him around the head with the business end of her agiel. And from the grin that slowly dawned on Richard's face, matching the rising sun, he knew it.

But perhaps he also knew her very well. Before her temper could get the better of her, the grin faded from his face to be replaced with a thoughtful look that she recognised.

"There's more snow on the way," he said. "I can taste it on the wind. And it's a good three days away from the nearest village." He corrected himself, his face growing sombre. "The nearest inhabited village, anyway."

"So what? We just sit here until the spring, twiddling our toes and letting Zedd bore us with his stories?"

Richard's look of affectionate amusement merely deepened, leaving her fighting the urge to stamp on his toes just to see how he would twiddle with them after that. The expression on Zedd's face, on the other hand, blossomed into mock outrage.

"I'll thank you not describe my stories as boring, Cara. There's many a time I've earned my keep with a well spun yarn or two thanks to my noted thespian skills." Cara rolled her eyes again. Zedd's boots weren't as thick as Richard's; it was possible she should remind him of that so that he could practice his thespian skills when it came to depicting a man in pain.

"Winter's early," said Richard gently before she could act on the impulse. "And I doubt we'll have more than a day or two before the weather passes us by. We've nowhere really to be in a hurry." He shot another of those sneaky sidelong looks, this time at Leo, before he looked back at her, not bothering to hide his amusement. "Unless there is another reason you don't want to be trapped in a cave with us. Somewhere else you'd rather be?" The 'with someone else' hung unsaid in the air, which was just as well. She had grown quite fond of Richard, but fonder still of Kahlan. She'd hate to have to ruin Kahlan's day by demonstrating that not even the Lord Rahl would come away unscathed from teasing a Mord-Sith. No matter how big Richard's sword.

"We should think about stocking up our supplies." It was the first time that Leo had spoken since they'd risen from their bed, which was unusually quiet for Leo, but when she glanced over at him he gave her a warm smile. He must still be half asleep, his wits too dull for early morning conversation; she managed to fight down the pleased little grin at that before it appeared on her face. She'd given him enough reasons to be tired, and her body still ached pleasantly from it.

It didn't stop her, of course, from snapping back, "And how do you propose to do that, when the nearest village is three days away?"

Richard snorted, and when she glanced at him, her face already settling into a scowl - as though that did any good when it came to Richard - his eyes were bright with merriment. Kahlan's were twinkling as well, and even Zedd ducked his head to hide his grin.

"I think perhaps you're being a little harsh, Cara." Kahlan's tone might have been a little reproachful but the sparkle was still in her eyes; she didn't need a smile on her face when it was clear in her voice. "Leo does have a point." Kahlan glanced sideways at Richard, getting a little nod in return.

"It won't hurt to add to our stores a little," Richard added, although his gaze never drifted from Kahlan's face. "I saw some tracks yesterday. Deer mainly, but there will be rabbits as well. Maybe even some chipmunks." His mouth twitched suspiciously but Cara was well past eye rolling by this point. She narrowed her eyes at him instead, promising a pain with a look.

Death was too good for him. Besides, it appeared that not even the Keeper wanted to keep him permanently.

Her attention was drawn by a rattle from Leo's direction. He pulled his bow from his pack, glancing up at her from underneath shaggy blond hair, a smile also playing around the corners of his mouth. She'd call it a conspiracy if they weren't so bad at it.

"Fine," she snapped, stalking over to Leo and pulling her own bow unceremoniously from her pack. She paused at the entrance to the cave, just a treat them all to look that told them exactly what she thought of their little ploys. Richard and Kahlan, at least, had enough good sense not to let anything but a sombre, serious expression appear on their faces in face of her disgruntlement, but Zedd made no effort to try and hide his look of glee.

The wizard was going to get the least palatable parts of anything she caught today, she'd make sure of that.

-o-

Whatever tracks Richard had seen the day before, it seemed that they'd since been buried under inches of snow. It stretched out before them, pristinely white and untouched, crunching underfoot with each step that Cara took. The day was cold but not bitterly so; there was no biting wind to bring the arctic chill, not now that the sun hung brightly in the sky, lighting up the world around them, crisp and clear. Instead the air was still, stretching on forever in shades of blue. And now that she was out in the open, Cara could catch the hint of snow that Richard had talked of, feeling the way it seemed to prickle on her skin and tingle in her lungs.

Leo was a silent presence by her side, not quite as adept at a moving as noiselessly through the undergrowth as Richard but at least, for once, keeping his own counsel, silent and steady.

Now that he was quiet, of course, Cara wanted nothing more than to listen to the sound of his inane babble. It was weirdly comforting, how Leo could talk about nothing and still make it sound as though it was everything. It was a knack that Cara had never appreciated before, and one she would appreciate in no one else. Perhaps in Zedd. The old wizard had a similar way of spinning a yarn so that you ended up tangled in the middle of it, all warm and unable to escape, not that she'd ever share that snippet with Zedd. She suspected he knew anyway.

Leo's hand on her arm stopped her train of thought. For once his eyes were not fixed on her but were searching along the undergrowth; she missed the weight of his gaze and shivered. It had nothing to do with the chill in the air.

"Tracks," he murmured right next to her ear; his breath was warm against her skin, stirring the small hairs there and she had to fight the urge to turn her head and meet his warmth with some of her own. Mord-Sith didn't do this, didn't give in, but some small, quiet part of her couldn't help but wonder if this was a battle that she may already have lost in a war she wasn't sure she wanted to win.

She hated dwelling on it, so she did what she always did - dealt with the practicalities, focusing on the subtle parries and feints between them rather than the undercurrents that ran beneath. She knew how to fight, knew how to fuck him into pliant submission, even if the rest of it felt beyond her most days.

"Rabbits," she said briskly, stepping away from Leo under the pretext of eyeing the tracks more closely. It didn't fool him; he'd been a Seeker once - very little did. He straightened up, his eyes bright although he kept the expression on his face serious, nodding slightly as though every word that dropped from her lips was not to be missed. He was mocking her again, so subtly that she couldn't really take offence at it. It didn't stop her scowling; he had his role to play, and she hers.

"Won't make much of a meal," she said. "Unless it comes with a whole, fat family with it."

"Could be worse," said Leo dryly, digging the end of his long bow into the soft snow and using it to lean on. He folded his hands on top of it and eyed her over them. The amusement he felt - she could never quite figure out if that was at her or the situations they found themselves in and it left her off balance, uneasy and wanting all at once - was clear on his face. She shouldn't indulge him - should brush him off, focus on the task the Lord Rahl had given her, even if the Lord Rahl was Richard, who smiled too softly and too freely, and who teased her worse than Leo.

"How?" The question came out belligerent - she fell into that role too easily, but it was better than the other kinds of falling that always haunted her when she and Leo were alone.

"Could be chipmunks," he said and grinned, bright and free, giddier even than Richard at his worst. "I hear they don't make good eating."

She should roll her eyes again, brush him off as easily she brushed off the snow that fell on her shoulders as they ducked through the trees; instead she giggled, her hand coming up too late to cover her mouth and hide it.

Her sisters would disown her for showing such weakness, but her sisters already had and Cara was only stronger for that. She needed nobody. Nobody but Richard and Kahlan and Zedd.

And now Leo.

His face had brightened further at the sound of her laughter. "You should laugh more often," he said, straightening up and pulling his bow free from its snowy rest. "I should **make**you laugh more often."

"Oh," she said, finding her footing on more familiar ground, "when you're around I'm sure I'll always have something to laugh at." She put the slightest of emphasis on the word 'at', a subtle insult when normally she flung them around with as much zeal but far less grace than her agiels, but Leo didn't take offence. Leo never did. He grinned more widely, and gestured for her to precede him, to wend her way through the forests in search of prey, trusting him to follow in her wake.

She moved past him, closer than she needed to, far closer than was safe, but then she was Mord-Sith and Mord-Sith never played it safe. Playing with fire, Zedd would call it, twisting his tongue around the words and twisting his face into a mask befitting whatever tale he was telling. Leo was warmth and heat; he never burnt but she didn't know how to melt.

Not yet, but...

The sun rose higher in the sky as they moved through the forest, swift enough to keep her warm. They lost the rabbit prints but picked up fresh deer tracks, Leo pointing them out to her as though she hadn't learnt enough from Richard to gauge their age and direction. She let him talk anyway, her fierce pride, for once, silenced by the tilt of his head, the gestures of his hands. The enthusiasm in his voice and face, even muffled as it was by the need to stay low and quiet.

When they moved off again, he leant in to hold a branch out of her way, close enough for the warmth of his breath to brush against her skin. The feathery needles stirred and loose snow drifted down, settling coldly against her neck. His fingers brushed it away before it could slide beneath her leathers and chill her further; his touch was warm, lingering for a moment as she turned her head, his eyes meeting hers calmly, but with fire in their depths.

The sun was rising higher in the sky, and Zedd's stomach would be grumbling. But the wizard would have to be content with dried jerky and tack today.

Today, Cara had other prey in mind.

The End


End file.
